Investigation of the Effects of Increased Coverage Area for Soft Body Armor

Lawrence Technological University seeks to determine body areas that current body armor does not cover, but if covered, would have the greatest potential to reduce injury and fatality rates and to evaluate the effect of increased coverage area on task performance, including task completion time and firing accuracy. Phase I of the proposed study will include a search of the Survivor's Club database and a statistical analysis of the results. Phase II will include a field based ergonomic evaluation of volunteer law enforcement personnel while wearing various armor configurations.

This underlying research on body armor area of coverage will lead to the potential development of tools and technologies for use by local law enforcement agencies in order to better protect law enforcement officers.

ca/ncf